Pittsburgh New Music Net

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tcrps and Dynamo Sound Collective Present:

AARON DILLOWAY

[HANSON RECORDS | SHATTER ALL ORGANIZED ACTIVITIES]
…
“Aaron Dilloway is an experimental musician. He has been releasing and recording music since the age of 16. He was a member of experimental bands Couch, Galen and Universal Indians. He is a former guitarist and tape manipulator for the experimental band Wolf Eyes, which he left in 2005 to live most of that year in Kathmandu, Nepal. Currently he runs the noise record label, record store and mailorder Hanson Records, which he began in Brighton, Michigan in 1994. Hanson then moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan for several years, before finally settling in Oberlin, Ohio, after a brief return to Ann Arbor. He performs solo using eight track tapes and vocal sounds, and records modular synthesizer music as Spine Scavenger. Recently, he has played with an ever-changing cast of sound artists under the name The Nevari Butchers. He is a major enthusiast of urine recycling.” – MTV.com

REGRESSION

[NATE YOUNG | WOLF EYES | MOON POOL & DEAD BAND]

“Keeping up with Wolf Eyes’ myriad side projects has always been a losing battle, so we’ll save you some time by saying this: Nate Young’s recent run of Regression records is worth a listen even if you despise noise music. That’s because it’s not really noise at all. More like extended episodes of pure dread, true to Wolf Eyes’ unsettling ethos, yet eminently listenable if you enjoy feeling a little creeped out…” — Self-Titled Mag

COCK SCENE INVESTIGATOR

[FUCK TCRPS | TROGPITE | MACRONYMPHA]

Joe Roemer, Nick Painter and Edgar Um gettin’ bizzay. Historic reunion show.

RYAN EMMETT
[DYNAMO SOUND COLLECTIVE | HUNTED CREATURES | COTTONBALLMAN]

Haunted loops, drones, sounds and beer.

Molly Joyce is a young up-and-coming Pittsburgh-borned-and-raised composer. She’s studying composition at Julliard since 2011, and her music is getting a lot of attention around the country… ensembles, blogs, audiences, etc. Her piece Dollhouse was selected as one of the 5 finalists in the PNME/Alia Musica 2012-13 Competition, so it’s part of the program in Alia Musica’s concert Friday (Kresge Hall, 7:30, $15/12).

I had a nice talk with her last Friday. We had ‘skyped her in’ for one of the rehearsals, so we thought, why not have a conversation about things? Here’s some of it, check it out:

Take a break from this year’s busy holiday season to take in the sounds of Talujon Percussion Ensemble this December. The renowned percussion ensemble returns to Pittsburgh performing Eric Moe’s Danger: Giant Frogs, Amy Williams’ Dream Landscape (world premiere), Wayne Peterson’s Trap Drum Fantasy, and John Cage’s Third Construction, One4, Three2, and cComposed Improvisations on Saturday, December 1st at 8 p.m. in Bellefield Hall Auditorium.

The highly innovative percussion ensemble is sure to be one of the most exciting Music on the Edge concerts in Pittsburgh this year. Described by The New York Times as an ensemble possessing an “edgy, unflagging energy”, Talujon has been captivating audiences since 1990. The individual members of Talujon have recorded internationally, worked with the Blue Man Group and Philip Glass, and been featured on film scores such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and that’s just what they do in their own time. When working in tandem, the members of Talujon are a musical force to be reckoned with. In the words of the Morning Call music review, “…the message that percussive music can be beautiful, and even transcendent, was most certainly drummed home.”

Talujon is thoroughly committed to the expansion of the contemporary percussion repertoire as well as the education and diversification of its worldwide audience. Over the past 20 years, Talujon has commissioned dozens of works by a who’s who of American composers, including Alvin Lucier, Henry Threadgill, Ralph Shapey, Wayne Peterson, Julia Wolfe, Ushio Torikai, Louis Karchin, Eric Moe, Steve Ricks, and Chien Yin Chen. For more of their views on contemporary music, check out this interview with member Michael Lipsey.

Tickets for Talujon are available online, by calling 412-624-play (7529), or at the Pitt Repertory Theatre Box Office, Monday–Friday, 1–4 p.m. (except when the University is closed and during the week of Thanksgiving). The Pitt Repertory Theatre Box Office is located in the lower level of the Stephen Foster Memorial.

Tickets in advance: general admission is $15; students and seniors are $10. At the door: general admission is $20; students and seniors are $15. Pitt students are free.

Need to blow off a little election night steam? There are some excellent new music concerts happening that will take your mind of polls and electoral college tallies, at least for a little while. And just think! Tomorrow it will be safe to turn on your TV again without fear  getting blasted by political ads!

First off, Eliseo Rael will lead the Duquesne Percussion Ensemble in a program of new works featuring Dana Wilson’s award winning piece “Primal Worlds”. Also on the concert is music of Pittsburgh based composer Eric Moe, Jack Stamp, and the Pittsburgh Symphony’s 2004-2005 composer of the year Christopher Rouse.

Tuesday November 6, 2012, 8pm
Admission: Free

MOE “I Have Only One Itching Desire”
WHITACRE “Lux Aurumque”
ROUSE “Ku-Ka-Ilimoku”
STAMP “Vociferation”
WILSON “Primal Worlds”

Another concert takes place at WVU celebrating the music of George Crumb. The concert will be held at the WVU Creative Arts Center, Tuesday, Nov. 6 at 7:30 p.m. in the Bloch Learning and Performance Hall (200A) and is free and open to the public.

Performers include Crumb’s daughter, Ann Crumb, a soprano, along with Patrick Mason, baritone, and members of Orchestra 2001 of Philadelphia, including: Director James Freeman; Marcantonio Barone, piano; and percussionists
William Kerrigan, David Nelson, Brenda Weckerly and Greg Giannascoli.

The concert features songs from Crumb’s “Voices from the Heartland” (American Songbook VII, 2010), including “A Cycle of Hymns, Spirituals, Folksongs, and American Indian Chants.”

Songs include “Softly and Tenderly,” “Ghost Dance” (Pawnee Tribal Chant), “Lord, Let Me Fly!” “The Kanawha River at Dusk” (An Appalachian Nocturne), “Glory Be to the New-Born King” (A Christmas Spiritual), “Come All Ye Fair and Tender Maidens” and “On top of Old Smoky” (The War of the Sexes), “Beulah Land,” “Old Blue,” and “Song of the Earth” (Navajo Tribal Chants).

See the full details for the concert here.

Many write-ups of Elliott Carter’s storied career have been published by major news organizations today.Here’s Allan Kozinn’s fromThe New York Times.

Kresge Theatre
Tickets

ALIA MUSICA Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble announce a concert of music by Pittsburgh-related composers Molly Joyce, David Liptak, David Stock, Sean Neukom, and James Ogburn. The concert will be held on Friday November 16, 7:30pm at Carnegie Mellon University’s Kresge Theatre.

In a joint, two-phase production supported in part by The Heinz Endowments and The Pittsburgh Foundation, the two organizations invited submissions from composers anywhere who could demonstrate a connection to Pittsburgh. Out of nearly 50 eligible scores, directors Kevin Noe and Federico Garcia selected five of the pieces to be featured as finalists in the first phase of the competition—the Finalists Concert, where the Alia Musica ensemble will perform the five compositions.

The program includes two world premieres, by Sean Neukom and David Stock, and Pittsburgh premieres by David Liptak and Molly Joyce.  The program features ensembles between 5 and 15 performers.

After the concert, a winner will be chosen by the artistic directors and other staff members from Alia Musica and the PNME. The composer of the winning piece will be commissioned for a new piece for the PNME, to be premiered in their upcoming season in phase 2 of the joint competition. Input from the audience will be also be recognized through an Audience Choice Award.

The concert will be followed by a reception at a local restaurant to be announced, where audience members are invited to join the musicians and the five composers, all of whom will be present.

The finalists

David Liptak, composition faculty at the prestigious Eastman School of Music, wrote Passing of Memory in 2003 for Steven Stucky (the 2011-12 PSO Composer in Residence) and Ensemble X, who premiered it in Ithaca in the same year. Scored for woodwinds, trumpet, piano, two percussionists, and string quintet, the piece has also been performed and recorded by Brad Lubman and Eastman’s Musica Nova.

Pittsburgh-native Molly Joyce is a composition student at Julliard since 2011. Already featured by Alia Musica in the Spring of 2011, her recent piece Dollhouse, for chamber orchestra, is the result of a commission from up-and-coming ensemble Contemporaneous.  Joyce’s piece has added to the increasing attention her music is drawing among specialized media, including blogs I Care if you Listen and Prufock’s Dilemma, which featured the work in September 2012.

James Ogburn’s Centric was one of the 11 world premieres in Alia Musica Pittsburgh’s inaugural 2007 concert. One of the earliest pieces still in the ensemble’s repertory, it is scored for woodwinds, vibraphone, piano, violin and cello. Mr. Ogburn has acted as head of the Composition Department at Bangkok University in Thailand since 2010.

Pittsburgh’s legendary David Stock will have his new quintet Five Four-Letter Words premiered by the Alia Musica Chamber Players in the Finalists Concert. Scored for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and percussion, the five-movement piece is a musical realization of five particularly suggestive words: Step, Wisp, Chip, Heat, and Spin.

Sean Neukom is the founder of Symbiotic Collusion, the pioneering arts-and-music business associated, among others, with the Freya String Quartet. At 7.1, to be premiered in the Finalists Concert, stemmed from an original composition for string quartet—most recently performed by Freya in the Hear/Now Festival in 2012—now re-imagined and re-scored for clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, marimba, violin and double-bass. The fast-paced piece is elevated by contemplative passages, where part of the ensemble is called to sustain a minor second in four crystal glasses.

Alia Musica/PNME Commission Competition Finalists’ Concert

Kresge Theater, College of Fine Arts, Carnegie Mellon University

Friday November 16, 2012, 7:30pm

Tickets at the door: $15 ($12 for students/seniors).

Discount advance purchase: $10 available at www.alia-musica.org

Sean Neukom - At 7.1 (premiere)

David Stock - Five Four-letter Words (premiere)

David Liptak - Passing of Memory

- intermission -

James Ogburn - Centric

Molly Joyce - Dollhouse

- reception to follow with the finalist composers

Performance by Alia Musica Pittsburgh, conducted by Federico Garcia

Details, tickets, and directions at www.alia-musica.org

The Union Project
Tickets: General Admission: $10/$5 students (Suggested Donation)
Cash accepted at the door the evening of the performance.

ELCO presents a multi-media, musical celebration of the music of John Cage with a healthy dose of absurdist theatre.

The Eclectic Laboratory Chamber Orchestra seeks to tear down distinctions of genre and demolish preconceived notions about music by presenting a repertoire spanning from the Middle Ages to present day, placing emphasis on classical, modern classical, and pop music

ELCO utilizes the medium of the chamber orchestra to explore connections between diverse musical genres and traditions, promoting a broad range of repertoire, including modern classical music, new interpretations of older classical works, and rock and pop compositions. The core ELCO ensemble consists of young professional orchestral musicians collaborating with up-and-coming opera and rock vocalists.

Music on the Edge may be starting the season a bit late this year with the first show set for November 18th, but New York’s critically acclaimed contemporary ensemble, Sequitur, should be worth the wait.

Sequitur got their start in New York City in 1996, and has been setting the bar for new music performances in New York ever since. They aim to speak directly to the audience, literally rather than figuratively, bringing their shows to intimate settings such as cabarets and clubs. Finding their true niche in the playhouse, Sequitur has been combining the media of music and theater, bringing elements of acting and dance into their shows since 1997. They have enjoyed a long association with Miller Theatre, where they have presented portrait concerts of George Crumb, George Rochberg with David Del Tredici, Luciano Berio with Giorgio Battistelli, and György Kurtág.

Sequitur has proven its versatility time and again with such varied projects as cabarets featuring the works of Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler as well as concerts featuring the works of contemporary American composers such as Lee Hyla, Randall Wolf, and Mathew Rosenblum. Sequitur’s goal has always been “to identify new and fascinating music of all styles, from all parts of the world.” -Harold Meltzer, co-director.

Come and join us for Sequitur’s Pittsburgh show at Bellefield Hall Auditorium on Sunday, November 18th at 7 p.m. The program will feature Amy Williams’ Cineshape 5, Mathew Rosenblum’s Maggies, Eric Moe’s Strenuous Pleasures, Variations on a Summer’s Day by Harold Meltzer, and also Ravel’s Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé to add a little romance to the evening.

Tickets are available online, at the Pitt Repertory Theatre Box Office, or by calling412-624-play (7529). Tickets in advance: general admission is $15; students and seniors are $10. At the door: general admission is $20; students and seniors are $15. Pitt students are free.